HOUSTON — It was 20 years ago when I entered a Rockets locker room in Phoenix and got a lesson in mind games.
Hakeem Olajuwon was sitting at a stall in the cramped room for the visiting team, lacing up his sneakers. His Rockets had lost the first two games at home to Charles Barkley and the Suns, then won Game 3 in the desert.
Still the Rockets were the team in the hole just a little more than an hour before tipoff of Game 4 when I mentioned to Olajuwon that the heat and the pressure were again on his team.
He looked up, smiled peacefully and reached out to pull a folding chair up next to his.
“Sit down and let me explain,” Olajuwon said. “The pressure is all on Phoenix. Because they know if we go back home 2-2 they will have wasted having the advantage. The know we will win Game 5 at home. They will have to fight to survive in Game 6 and then they will not have a chance in Game 7 in Houston. That is why they will feel the pressure. They know they must win tonight.”
The Suns didn’t. The Rockets won in seven and the legend of Clutch City was born.
Fast forward to 1995. This time Barkley and the Suns built a 3-1 lead on the Rockets. This time Barkley and the Suns had home-court advantage.
This time I was sure I had Olajuwon backed into the corner when I approached him again about an hour before Game 5. Now the situation was reversed and the Rockets were the ones on the ropes. He saw me coming.
“Where’s your chair?” he asked with that impish grin.
I sat down and he was immediately off making twists and turns of logic and faith and resolute determination.
“Phoenix must win tonight,” he said. “If they don’t end the series, they know we will go back to Houston and win Game 6. Then we come back here and the pressure to win Game 7 will be so great. They will be tight. They will be tense. They will be afraid to fail and that often leads to failure.”
Which it did. And the Rockets went on to win their second consecutive NBA championship.
Mind games.
That’s where the Rockets are today, trailing the Trail Blazers 3-1 with their toes and their season dangling over the edge.
That’s where Olajuwon comes back in. The Hall of Famer didn’t just work with Dwight Howard on his post moves at practice Tuesday. He worked on his head.
“It is deceiving if you look at the situation as 3-1,” Olajuwon said. “I told Dwight, I told all of them, that the situation is just one game and then everything changes around.”
Three of the first four games have gone to overtime, every Blazers win by five points or less.
Let Kevin McHale and his coaching staff worry about the X’s and O’s, the juggling of the playing rotation, the tweaks to the lineup, how to corral LaMarcus Aldridge. The greatest player in franchise history says all the Rockets have to do is have the right attitude.
“This is the Rockets’ chance not just to win a game, but to dominate, to take control of every play, every possession at both ends of the court and take over the series,” Olajuwon said. “If you think about it, this should be the most free, the most easy game the Rockets have played in the playoffs. Play that way and everything changes.”
That’s how the great ones from Bill Russell to Larry Bird to Magic Johnson to Michael Jordan to Hakeem always climbed the ladder. They played to thrive, not just survive. They never felt their backs were against the wall, because they simply refused to acknowledge the very existence of the wall. The problem is never theirs, but one that belongs to the other guy.
“Portland is feeling good about themselves right now,” Olajuwon said. “They have won three times and they have a chance to close it all out in Game 5. But they better, because if you think about it, this next game is their best chance. If they lose this game, if you punish them, dominate them, you plant that doubt.”
Those Rockets of 1994 and 1995 were a veteran bunch. From Hakeem to Otis Thorpe to Vernon Maxwell to Clyde Drexler to Kenny Smith to Mario Elie, they had been around more than a few basketball blocks. By the second time around, even the youngest bricks in their wall — Robert Horry and Sam Cassell — had lived through the crucible of the first experience.
These Rockets, as far as playoff pedigrees, mostly couldn’t be more wet behind the ears if you tossed them into the ocean.
“That’s why I told Dwight that it’s up to him to set the pace,” Olajuwon said. “He and James Harden are the veterans. But he is the center. He is the one the game goes around, on offense and on defense. Set the pace. Come out strong.
“I am excited about what I see from Dwight since the beginning of the season. I watch and I see many of the things that we’ve worked on coming out in his game. I see moves. I see a jumper that could be a bigger weapon in the future. I see aggressiveness in him that is becoming more consistent.”
What he wants to see, what he needs to see now, is a team leader that doesn’t recognize the current predicament as anything but an opportunity.
Two decades later, a seat in another folding chair and another lesson, for me and for Howard.
“Like I told him,” said Olajuwon, “3-1 is just going out and having fun.”
Mind games.

Why Howard ? Oh that's easy. Because the man talking is Hakeem Olajuwon. He has always maintained that true Dominance in basketball long term is the domain of the Big Man. A small exclusive club.

Big man as Leader by example. So I get what he's saying. What a mentor for Howard, and I feel I see that in Dwight's play this year. It has grown stronger and stronger.

Maybe Otis Thorpe could chat with FlyBoy about "humble and hungry".

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I think his point was that Dwight is the only one who has actually stepped up this series (other than Daniels), so he may not need the extra motivation. But I'm all for him knowing how to play the mind game and not get his dopper down considering we're down 3-1.

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